Night Shift Work Impacts Health and Safety

More than 15 million people in the United States regularly work late in the evening, at night, or on rotating shifts. These late hours are essential in a wide range of industries, as diverse as all-night eateries, hotels, fire departments, industrial plants and factories and television stations.

Health and safety consultants have pointed out a number of problems that develop for workers on these shifts, affecting both safety conditions at the workplace and the employee’s overall health.

Circadian Rhythm and Sleep

Working when the rest of the country is enjoying dinner or may be off to bed has decided effects on the life of a shift worker, especially noticeable in his sleep pattern. People who work late afternoon into the evening, called swing shift workers, tend to get the most sleep of all shift workers. Night workers, those working 11 p.m. or midnight until early morning, get the least.

Lack of sleep affects a person’s circadian rhythm. The human body operates on a 24-hour cycle. The temperature of the body, level of alertness, blood pressure, urge to eat and release of hormones are all part of this cycle. When the normal cycle gets disrupted, workers and healthcare providers have noticed a number of problems, including:

depression

stress

insomnia

drowsiness

The human body is meant to be most active in late afternoon and the early evening. That’s when a person’s metabolism is highest. The least activity and energy happens late at night. It is built into the human system to feel more energetic at 4 p.m. and more sleepy at 4 a.m.

In addition to the overall affect on the human system, each individual has a personal circadian rhythm. This explains why some people are night owls and others are morning people. When a person matches his livelihood to his natural inclination, he feels most productive and energetic. For example, musicians who describe themselves as night owls do well when they perform in the evening. If a nurse is a natural morning person, she will feel most productive when she chooses the early morning shift at a hospital.

Circadian Rhythm and Safety

The important thing about circadian rhythms, both general and individual, in relation to workplace safety is how alert a worker feels during his shift. It’s just common sense that a person is more aware of his surroundings when his rhythms and the body’s activity level is high. The more aware he is, the more able he is to take the proper safety precautions. When his body’s activity level is low, his alertness and attention to detail is negatively impacted.

Swing shift and night shift workers are moving against the body’s natural inclinations with their hours of employment. Any amount of extra fatigue, from insomnia or being extra active physically or mentally will give his alertness levels a double whammy. Studies support this, showing an increase in the number of accidents that occur at night.

Chronic Health Problems

Many workers can’t take the effects of prolonged shift work and move to jobs that have more regular hours. Chronic digestive problems, including ulcers, constipation, and acid reflux, are among the most common reasons workers give for moving to a “9 to 5” work setting.

Another serious problem noticed by Swedish researchers studying paper-mill employees was an increased risk of heart disease among shift workers.

Depression and anxiety are also common. Workers point to the stress of dealing with unhappy spouses and having less time to socialize.

If a worker has bad habits like smoking, drinking or using recreational drugs, shift work appears to exacerbate it.

Lessening the Impact

Few laws regulate shift work to make it easier on a person’s body. But it is to management’s advantage to care for the health of their late-shift employees. A managed plan can reduce lost-time illnesses and employee turnover.

Based on research at the Center for Disease Control, health and safety consultants suggest six ways companies can reduce the negative effects of working evenings and nights. They include:

avoiding putting a person on a permanent night shift

reducing the number of consecutive night shifts

making sure workers regularly get weekends off

limiting overtime

keeping a regular and predictable schedule

building in frequent rest breaks

Following these simple guidelines can go a long way toward improving the health, safety, and overall sense of well being and general happiness of your employees.

~Mary Hannick

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safetyBUILT-IN is the safety-leadership learning and development division of SCInc. We believe sustainable safety performance is best achieved through a core-values based safety culture, and that culture must be driven by leadership. Our safety-leadership programs are competency-based, and focused on performance outcomes. We believe in building capability and ownership into our client organizations—as well as sustainability into our programs—so that our clients can continue running those programs long after we’re out of the picture. Our emphasis is on building better leadership presence, better leadership communication and better leadership coaching by first building relationships of trust with people and learning how to engage them on the level of their core values and beliefs.

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“What stood out to me the most was that coaching based on core values is more effective than citing compliance to policies. Every supervisor and manager should attend!” Pat Hodgson, SHE Manager | BAE Systems

“I have attended other safety workshops in the past, but none has ever laid out the skills building and leadership qualities like this one. I was fully engaged the entire two days. I can’t wait to practice these skills.” Phil Laudolff | General Mills

“Outstanding workshop! It was far more than a safety meeting. This will have an impact on our operation. I am anxious to send my next level of management at the next opportunity.” Joe Gednalske, Director of Product Development

“Being a manager of safety comes with many challenges. I have learned over time that the traditional style of safety compliance training, such as videos, generic presentations, etc., may not be totally effective for ensuring our employees understand the pertinent information presented, and how to utilize that information as part of their every day life.… Read more ““Gives Employees a New Way of Thinking …””

“This was one of the best leadership workshops that I’ve been to in my career (simple and effective tools)! It will help drive safety as a core value. I think it will really make people better leaders as a whole. That will drive our overall business in the right direction, starting with safety.” Shawn Myers,… Read more ““One of the Best Leadership Workshops””

“Facilitator was one of the best, if not the best presenter and speaker that I have ever had the pleasure of listening to. I believe this training is important and pertinent enough to allocate the appropriate needed expenditures to ensure that ALL SUPERVISORS AND LEAD PEOPLE from every location in the pipeline attend. I was… Read more ““All Leaders Need to Attend””

“The safetyBUILT-IN team provided our employees with a perspective on how to view safety such that they want to be involved in leading safety in the organization. The program gave us simple, understandable tools and techniques for leading and coaching not only safety but every other discipline we deal with in the work environment. I… Read more ““Changed Our Mindset About Safety””

In my 25 years of EHS work, I have never seen so much positive response from a Safety program. Typical responses identify the fact that this is so much more than Safety Training – it is Leadership training that will help them in all aspects of their employee engagement efforts. I believe, with continued leadership… Read more ““Transformational””

“Strong and clear leadership course that brings practical and effective methods to identify opportunities, resolve them, coach, and drive results. Clear, meaningful subject matter, and fantastic materials. Love the ‘do’ focus of the course and the ongoing feedback–and the facilitator actually practices the methods during the course! Informs the mind, but superbly connects to the… Read more ““One of the Best Experiences …””